20.2 Ask and Believe
© 2015 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
God has given us three very simple, very easy, and very powerful things all humans can do, speak Christ, ask and believe, and give thanks. These things do not “take us into” Christ; God has already placed us inside of Jesus and we cannot be anywhere else. But being “in” God is not our goal. Eternal life is not to be “in” God, but to KNOW we are in the Father and the Father in us.
These three simple actions of faith, actions of grace, do to us what is needed – they change our minds, causing us to know what is already and fully true. Asking and believing is the practical way by which we boast with all exultant boasting in our hope, in things we do not see.
To Our Astonishment
I had a cousin who was of very simple mind. She was well able to be taught to say, “Jesus lives in my heart; He is all that I am,” or to ask and to believe or to give thanks for all her difficulties. She may not have understood everything with her mind, but her face would have – and did – show the joy of the knowledge of Jesus alive in her heart.
No accusation can accuse us of acting according to the flesh when we do these three things. Do them of the flesh, so what! If you give thanks inside of rage and animosity, guess what. Christ will arise in you to your very astonishment and all that is not Christ will vanish away as you persist (hold fast) in speaking Christ, asking with believing, and giving thanks.
Our Weapon of Power
Asking and believing that we have received is the most incredible weapon of power that we possess. Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you (Matthew 7:7).
Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them (Mark 11:24). – And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full (John 16:23-24).
No Timidity
In 2 Kings 13, Joash, king of Israel, visits Elisha as Elisha is lying sick. Elisha immediately tells him to take his bow and to shoot an arrow out the window. Elisha tells the king that this signifies the defeat of the enemies of Israel. Then Elisha tells the king to take his arrows and strike the ground. He is angry with the king for striking only three times.
The moral of the story is this: when God says ask, ASK! Do not ever limit God by any form of timidity. God is not honored by timidity; He is honored by the bold heart of David, the pirate, boasting in what he does not yet see. But what do we ask Him for? That’s easy – all that He speaks.
Every Word
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him (1 John 5:14-15).
God’s word is His will; God’s word is Christ in us. Every word God speaks in the New Covenant is ours. – Every word belongs to us. – Every word. Christians, when contemplating God’s command to us to ask, have always set their asking at ridiculously low levels. “We don’t want to presume on God; we’re not sure what His will is.” Baloney! We know exactly what God’s will is. He tells us in the Covenant we signed with Him.
Believe We Have Received
It is God’s will that you and I be filled with all the fullness of God, right now and forever, inside all of our human weakness.
Then one more verse before we get to the asking. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us (Ephesians 3:20). The Father always does more than we ask.
But in Mark 11:24, Jesus adds this requirement to asking. He commands us to believe that we have received what we ask. Let’s obey Jesus and ask. In fact – let’s not be timid; let’s shoot for some big ones, the first seven most important verses.
Symmorphy and Fullness
Father, You say that you are conforming me right now into the image of Jesus, the first One of our kind. Father, I ask that you symmorphose me fully with Jesus in all ways right now. I believe, Father, that I have received what I ask. I am in all ways formed together with the image of Jesus Christ, the express image of God. I am God revealed, just as You have determined.
Father, You say that You fill me full with all of Your fullness. I ask that You be all that You are entirely inside of me. I believe that I have what I ask. Therefore, I go from this moment on knowing You only as the God who fills me full in Person with ALL that You are. You are so big in my sight, Oh Father, that when I look in the mirror in the middle of the night, all I can ever see is You.
Rivers and Victory
Father, You say that since I believe in Jesus, rivers of living water, Your Spirit, flow out from me, healing and giving life. God, I ask that You abound in love out from me in all ways right now and forever. I believe that it is true. I don’t have to see it or feel it; I know that the river of life flows out of me, reconciling the world to Yourself – because You say.
Father, You say that I defeat the accuser, that I cast down every voice that speaks against Christ, the Word You speak, revealed in human flesh. Father, I ask for the full experience of that victory. Father, I ask that I never speak contrary to Your words ever again. I speak all that You speak. I am Your victory; I am the proving of Christ. The accuser no longer finds anything inside of me.
Christ Our Life and Boldness
Father, You say that I am already dead to sin. You say that Christ is my life. I know that what You speak is true. I will never call myself or any part of myself anything except Christ my only life. My flesh is Your flesh, Oh Father. Father, I ask You to give me full and complete knowledge of my utter union with Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that I have already received all that I ask.
Father, You say that I sit upon Your throne, the Mercy Seat of Heaven, my heart, with all boldness. I ask for the full knowledge and release of Your authority through me, the authority of Love. In asking, I believe that I have all that I ask, for I ask according to Your will; Your word is Your will. I draw all things into love upon the Mercy Seat, upon my own heart.
Triumph
Father, You say that You always lead me in triumph and in no other way. Therefore I speak with all boldness and joy that Christ is all there is in me. I exult boastfully in all the victory of Jesus, though I see it not, yet I will see with my eyes, as You defeat death itself in my body. I speak Christ; I prophecy Christ into all of my being, into all of my ways, into all of my present and future and past. Father, I am so full of Christ that I simply cannot know anything else.
Now, it is important to understand what happens when we ask, believing that we have already received what we ask for – even though we do not see it, that is – hope, boasting in our hope. Our asking does not “make” things happen. God has already spoken His Word; that Word is already the only thing true.
Welcoming His Word
And inside every Word God speaks is the full conclusion and finishing of that Word. Everything God has spoken is Christ and Christ is the only life we are; our life is the completed Word God speaks. Asking enables us to respond in faith to what God speaks. When we ask, believing we have already received, our eyes are opened and we see Jesus already true, already our only life.
However, our asking is much more than our eyes opening. God cannot sin; God cannot enter into our knowledge except by our explicit permission. God requires us to actively welcome His Word into ourselves.
One Person Together
Asking and believing that we have already received all that we have asked is our part in this bond of connection between us and the Person of the Father. Every Word God speaks comes across the gap between our person and the Father’s Person as Christ Jesus. When we ask and believe that each word is joined into our own hearts and expressed through our own mouths, then we have responded to that Word as God intends. By that means, by our asking and believing, the Bond of Christ is made complete, joining the Father’s Person utterly with our person so that we walk and live and dance as one Pperson together.
Your Will Be Done
Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).
Do you see that if we simply believe we have received this simple request Jesus taught us to ask, we bring an end to all human folly and to this age of darkness and cruelty? Let us be warned by the foolish timidity of Joash; let us ask all that God speaks concerning us and never stop asking nor ever stop believing that we have already received whatever we ask. Let us ask to see the same love that flowed through Christ flow through us in all of our present experience. Let us ask to see the overcoming of Christ overcome in all measure through us in this present life.
Ask and Ask and Ask – and Believe
My God, let us ask and not stop asking. Why should we be satisfied with any part of this age of human folly? Shall we place upon our children the curse of walking under the torment of this age because we do not ask God for an end? Can we not ask, and in asking simply believe that we have already received what we ask? And can we not boast in God’s will against all sight of the eyes?
Ask and ask and ask; strike and strike, until all the glory of God covers this earth and no shadow of darkness remains upon it. This is God’s will for us and for our children. Ask, and believe absolutely that you have received.